Frostbite & bruises

A small, pale face with large, frightened eyes looked up at him pleadingly. Slowly, Nox let his gaze sweep over the petite woman. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a large bruise on the side of her jaw, a blue eye and a split upper lip. Someone had punched her hard in the face. Nox clenched his jaws tightly. Whatever she had been through was not his problem!

Before the woman could say anything, Nox took a big step forward and placed his large body inches from hers, forcing her to tilt her neck all the way back to look at him. “Which part wasn’t clear to you?”

His voice was gruff and dark, hoping it would scare her off. But it didn’t.

“Please... there are three children with us and Mads, the older woman, is badly injured.... If you send us out into the freezing cold again... she won’t survive!

Look, I’ll do anything, but please let us stay! I can cook, clean, hunt, you name it! And, and... Steve may be old, but he can still help... with various chores... and the kids can do their bit too! Please let us stay! I’ll do anything... Anything! As long as you let us stay!”

Nox looked at her with narrowed eyes. Despite being beaten black and blue, she had a sweet face, and he shifted his gaze from her to the small company behind her.

If he decided to let them stay, he would have no choice but to go hunting again tomorrow in this bloody storm... Besides, their supply of canned goods was running low and they had no fresh stuff... but... a few extra hands were actually more than welcome.... His eyes slid back to the woman in front of him, who looked at him expectantly. All this time, to his surprise, Shane had remained in the background, for which he was grateful.

“Everything?” Nox’s voice was low and deep.

The woman nodded her head vigorously. “Yes!”

Nox said nothing, just tilted his head and looked at her intensely. He watched her eyes grow wide as the ambiguity of his question slowly dawned on her.

As expected, the woman looked away nervously and began to rub her hands restlessly. To give her time, he glanced back at the group behind her. He saw that they were eyeing him suspiciously. Nox expected her to reject his offer anyway, but to his surprise she suddenly took a deep breath and straightened her back.

Her gaze found his again and she looked at him with big, uncertain eyes.

“I agree, but I have two conditions...” There was a slight tremor in her voice. Nox squeezed his eyes into slits but kept his mouth shut.

“The two girls are off limits...”

A snarl escaped Nox’s throat. “Of course they are!”

The woman just nodded and continued to look at him seriously. “...And secondly... I don’t want the others to know about this... ‘deal’...”

Nox shrugged and chuckled. “Fine by me... Gather the rest of your group and follow me...” Deliberately rude, Nox turned his back to her, signalling that their conversation was over.

His gaze rested on Shane as he did so. His brother, much to his surprise, had been silent the whole time.

Nox watched as Shane’s eyes slid past him, as if they could follow the woman. He grinned, although the man was blind, he knew his brother was probably following the woman’s footsteps until she was out of earshot.

It was only when Shane was sure the woman was out of earshot that his eyes slipped back to his brother. Even though he could not see Nox, he could sense his brother grinning.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You actually told her that if she and her group wanted to stay here, she should fuck you! What the hell are you doing?”

Though he knew his brother could not see it, the scornful grin appeared on Nox’s lips, and with an elegant swing he slung the rifle over his shoulder. With his other hand, he gripped his brother’s shoulder tightly as he leaned his face forward to his brother’s ear. “If the idea disgusts you so much, Shane... why didn’t you just open your mouth? Hmmm? Oh yeah... wait... you’re going to get laid too! So don’t be such a hypocrite! Blaming me for a simple condition of their stay. We both haven’t been with a woman for years, and now that the opportunity has presented itself, I just took it. She could have said no, it wasn’t like I held a knife to her throat...” and without waiting for an answer, Nox walked back to their quarters.

“What was that all about, girl?” Even though Steve hadn’t been able to understand what the tall man had said to the young woman, Steve had clearly seen that whatever the man had said had caused a shocked reaction in Morgan and he didn’t like that at all.

“There’s nothing, Steve... We... were just discussing some terms of our stay.” Morgan gave the older man a forced smile, hoping he wouldn’t elaborate.

“Don’t talk nonsense, Morgan! That big idiot... said something to you, something that startled you! I may be old, but I am not blind, girl! What did that bastard say?”

A warm glow went through her at the suspicious look in her old friend’s eyes, and the forced smile gave way to a sincere one.

“Nothing, really nothing Steve, he didn’t say anything in particular... They just don’t have much and I promised we would help them restock...” She quickly raised her hand at the shocked look on his face. “Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything about the seeds! That’s our secret until we’re sure these two can be trusted. Perhaps we can leave as soon as Mads has recovered sufficiently. .... For now, I have only agreed that we will help them with the daily chores, hunting and repairs to the factory...”

The frown on his face told Morgan that Steve didn’t believe her, but to her relief he didn’t insist on it any further, at least for the time being.

“Are you coming with me or are you going to stay at the entrance? Because otherwise you better get out of here!” The tall man’s thunderous voice echoed through the large, cold machine hall.

Quickly, the small group gathered their belongings and followed the two brothers up the stairs to the men’s living quarters.

The two men’s living quarters were small to say the least. They had converted two offices into a living room and a sleeping area, and with wood, insulation material and old blankets that Nox had found on his scavenger hunts, they had tried to insulate the rooms as best they could. But the factory was old and draughty, and though Nox did his best to keep things as warm as he could, the factory was too big for one man to handle. The freezing cold was rotting the walls and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep things warm, even in the two offices.

After hanging his gun back before removing the bullets, he watched with folded arms as the small group scurried past him towards the fireplace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tall figure stop and come up beside him.

With a sideways glance, he watched as the old man kept his eyes on the two women and the three children.

“I don’t know what you said to her or what kind of deal you two made, but I’ll be keeping an eye on you and if you or your brother ever have the guts to hurt her in any way... by God, I’ll kill you...” Before Nox had a chance to answer, the old man had walked over to join the others.

A grin crept across his face; the old bastard had a lot of guts, Nox had to give him that. Not many men would have dared to threaten him so openly.